Arrived 11/30/09

Hey family! *ducks thrown remains of turkey* Sorry bout last week, it was a long but excellent pday. I was pretty much in charge of the thanksgiving festivities here. Cooking had to be assigned, done, tables set, missionaries wrangled, potatoes mashed, etc. And it was quite a feast we had. there should be pictures somewhere, I'll need to get them from Elder N I think...so sorry, I failed to write back last week :(

Apply to BYU, Father! There, was that encouraging enough? Hehe! It would be cool. What is the position exactly?

Dear Emma, I am proud of ya. And I like airports/flying too. Dad says we don't really know what we are talking about, but i like the ambiance and the suspense and alles.

So, J's doin' well? Did he ask for Sterling, or Stanley? Or just skip it and go for Elder Mason? Haha.I sometimes get these weird flashback sensations walking around this country that remind me of places or things from before. Got a lot of them around Halloween, thinking back to old activities as i'd kick around leaves while walking down the streets here...kinda neat...

J gets back in July???? Maybe June. D just like 2-3 weeks before me. There IS talk around the mission that many of my generation (those to whom it applies) may get released a week early, since school starts like a week after our normal release date. No idea. I'm sure it'll come up sometime though. So D will be beginning of August or so. Haha! Feel free to get on Facebook--though I'm not sure it'd help you til at least J gets back.

I will need to start bringing it up with them. Contacts often need to be signed in like March :P this'll be fun!

Now to reply to the newer email:
You are all Thanksgiving heretics!!!!! I am glad that I somehow received the recessive Thanksgiving-appreciation gene! Hehehe jk jk...

School does become a home, though, don't it? Our circle of friends all referred to each other as ''the family'' and it was nice to have such close people even when away from the real home.

That picture of me with the 5 other elders is my district...well not my district, OUR district. Elder E is a hoot, Elder C is one of my best buds, Elders R and M are good guys, and that's my comp. At a district meeting.

Father, if you could print out that scripture chase and mail it over to me, that would be a most excellent spiritual thought. That was a very neat discovery.

I am kinda torn on whether I want to stay or not this coming transfer. To not switch right before Christmas would be nice, but I will be honest, I am tiring just a tad of this area. The people here are....mean. I am doing my best to keep a positive attitude and love the people. It's sometimes a challenge though, hee hee! S is being dumb of late (we call and he pretends to be someone else and say S isn't there) and our other investigators have dried up, so we spent the last week finding. Found some fresh blood, I'll let you know how things develop....

Thanks for the support and prayers and alles. It's been a strenuous couple of weeks. We are prolly gonna check out some of the huge christmas markets in Berlin today, is there anything I might be able to get for anybody? Unless I get suggestions I am gonna just shoot in the dark and that could be ugly...haha! Love you all and hope you didn't worry too much last week. But then again, you are my family. I know better ;) Haha!
Love you! Tschüß!---Elder Sterling Mason